


Parasite

by Sci_Fri1



Category: Gravity Falls, Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Slow Burn, Swearing, Wirt swears and that might be a bit ooc lmao, a lot of swearing, wirt keeps trying to gO OVER THE DAMN WALL
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-19 09:47:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13701963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sci_Fri1/pseuds/Sci_Fri1
Summary: Wirt awoke with a gasp, he was drowning.----After returning from the Unknown, Greg and Wirt thought that their troubles were finally over. But the universe has other plans, Wirt keeps getting nightmares and his attempts to climb over the cemetery wall keeps increasing; whilst Gregory keeps talking about this Beast and how it was hurting Wirt in his dreams, surely this all the result of almost drowning to death?Concerned, their parents take them down to Gravity Falls, Oregon, that has a self-proclaimed paranormal activity hub, the Mystery Shack. Surely, a tourist trap like this would distract the brothers and help them return to their usual selves, right? It's when Dipper and Mabel discover Wirt lying down in the forest with a broken leg do things really go awry.





	1. Chapter 0: Drowning

Wirt awoke with a gasp, he was drowning. His limbs felt heavy and his hopes for surviving were fading, it was as if he was back in the Unknown. The feeling of dread and the water entering his lungs grew and grew as his vision became hazy. 

Wirt needed help. He called out for it, but only water entered his mouth. Above him, a familiar lantern hung and shined a dim, haunting light. The boy thrashed and looked around wildly, eyes moving rapidly to find even a shred of human life or any life at all, but it was useless.

He was all alone in the dark stretch of water.


	2. Chapter 1: Things that Go Bump In the Dark

It has been a few months since Halloween and well, since the Unknown. Nothing much has changed, aside from the fact that Wirt and Greg got along better now, and that it was no longer autumn, but spring.

However, things haven’t been what they seem. The bags under Wirt’s eyes seemed to grow each day and Greg was terrified of the shadows that the tree in the garden gave off. It was apparent that something happened, and that something is still happening. Greg kept talking about the Unknown, and this “Beast” that attempted to kill them and turn them into Edlewood. Wirt’s poetry always had the same motif of a bluebird, or a possessed girl named Lorna.

Their parents have taken them to psychologist after psychologist, but they have all said the same thing, it’s just the trauma of a near death experience and this was how they coped with it. They tried everything from family therapy to sending the kids off for their own individual therapy sessions, but it all circled back to the same results. Wirt and Greg would come home content and somewhat happy; but then Wirt gets horrid nightmares, worse than the ones he usually has, which causes him to try and fight off something in his sleep which gave off the impression that someone is trying to choke him. This, in turn, causes Greg to worry and to rush off and comfort Wirt. Then they would stay up the entire night watching TV or reading to help calm themselves down, which leads them to be highly paranoid and terrified of nearly everything in the woods and in lakes the following week or until their next therapy session.

It has been getting better these past few days though. Perhaps it was the change in weather or the school activities that kept them busy during the days. Wirt now has friends that he often hangs out with in the school library after class and at the mall on weekends; whilst Greg spends a lot of time in after-school sports like taekwondo and football. Dinners in the Baker-Fitch household has become lighter too, it was as if a veil had been lifted, allowing their parents, Annie and Jason, to be able to communicate with the boys much more easily now.

Soon, summer had arrived.

Annie had noticed that her son would look out the window almost forlornly, especially when bluebirds would fly past their windows. It was as if he had lost someone dear to him in that forest.

“Wirt, you okay?”

“Hm?” Wirt replied, not really paying attention, “Oh, yeah. I am, thanks for asking, mum.”

“Alright,” the mother replied, going back to watching TV.

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon. Jason had taken Greg to football practice, leaving the mother-son duo to spend some quality time together. It should have been peaceful, but something rather peculiar happened. It wasn’t anything noticeable by any means, but if you looked, if you really looked, Annie could’ve sworn that she saw her son’s eyes flicker into rings of neon, and the temperature of the room dropped down to 10 degrees Celsius on the thermostat for just a couple minutes before rising to the usual 25, and he didn’t even flinch. However, this wasn’t the only instance; every time she passed by his bedroom at night, she knew for a fact that she saw an antlered shadow hang by Wirt’s bed. Whenever she asked Greg about it, he tenses up and says that the Beast from the Unknown is haunting Wirt, but when she asks Wirt, he freezes up and asks her what she’s talking about before running off to his room. Annie has talked about it with Jason and was relieved that she wasn’t the only one who noticed it. Jason had remarked many a time to her that sometimes when their family frog, Jason Funderburker, jumped around, he had no doubt that he heard the sound of bells coming from him or how he would see an antlered shadow lurking near Wirt and Greg during sunset.

Wirt, on the other hand, played the role of the blissfully unaware fool, or rather he ignored any questions of his predicament. He had already caused enough trouble when he and Greg fell into the lake and almost died, the bags under his mother’s eyes and the jitteriness of Greg’s father did nothing to prove otherwise; he did not need to consolidate this fact anymore by talking about it. He was well aware of his nightmares, he lived through one and barely came out alive, for God’s sake! He was also acutely aware of the shadow that seemed to always appear around him when he finally decides to sleep or when he crashes out from pure exhaustion, and he honestly couldn’t tell if it was really the Beast or if it was his imagination, but he’d rather it stay that way. Lifting up his tired eyes from his phone, he glanced at his mother. She looked so tired like she hadn’t had a good night’s rest in weeks. Wirt resisted the urge to cringe and instead focused on what she was watching on the telly, apparently “How I Met Your Mother” was on. Cool.

Wirt, growing bored of the 5th rerun of the show, returned to staring at his phone. He flipped through article after article on ways to get rid of nightmares and what being strangled, drowning and essentially dying in his dreams meant. But, he came back with nothing, question after question, he still returned with no answer, but with a growing number of questions instead. With a groan of frustration, Wirt slumped down and flipped his phone away, allowing it to fall somewhere on the sofa and out of his sight. His mother turned the TV off in concern; it wasn’t unusual to see her son worked up over something, but to go so far as to let his phone go out of his sight? Now that, that is concerning. She gave him a good look and sighed, seeing her son slouching over the side of the sofa with bags under his eyes filled with the concerns that no 17-year-old child should have, it tore up her heart.

“Wirt, how’s the research going?”

The brunet only groaned in reply, slumping further into his sofa crease, he really wasn’t looking too good.

“Well, how about you take a break from that? Jason and I-” she bit her cheek, hoping that what she will say next would interest the boy, “we have a surprise for you and Greg.”

Wirt perked up almost immediately: surprises weren’t uncommon in the Baker-Finch family, but it certainly wasn’t a daily thing either. Surprises were saved for important happy things, like birthdays or new siblings. So to hear his mother say that there was a surprise in store for Greg and him, it must’ve been something really important. The brunet sat up, careful not to sit on his phone, and scooched closer to his mother. Wirt was curious, and he wouldn’t admit this to anyone, but he was a bit excited too. Maybe this surprise would help distract him from whatever nightmares he has, finally allowing him to sleep.

“Well, what is it?”

“You’ll have to wait until Greg gets home first, it’ll be much easier to tell you both at the same time.”

Wirt pouted, pleading his mother to tell him and using his fatal “puppy eyes” attack. But alas, having seen it time and time again, she had become immune to it, choosing to instead chuckle and to get up to start dinner. The boy looked at the clock perched above the television. His eyes widened slightly in surprise; it’s late. It’s half past 5 already and it’s dark. Greg and his dad should have been home an hour ago. What on earth is taking them so long, the elder brother wondered. He tried moving his feet but found that he couldn’t; they must have fallen asleep from sitting so long.

With pin prickled feet, Wirt got up and walked towards the window to close the curtains, but he let out a silent scream just as he saw what was standing outside. The Beast was standing on the pavement, looking straight at him. Black oil dripped off of him and landed on the cement in thick, black globs; and his eyes glowed white and empty, there were no pupils in them, but Wirt knew better: his eyes were eerie rings of neon that held no life in them. The Beast held its lantern this time, knowing better than to let anyone else handle it. But just as it had appeared, it vanished right after Wirt let his eyes blink, leaving behind no trace of anyone or anything ever being there. The brunet held a sweaty palm up to his racing heart and his knees buckled underneath the weight of his body. He fell, feeling the carpeted floor hit him hard. Disbelief and terror coursed through his veins, and with a confused mind, he tried to make heads or tails of what happened.

“Am I going mad?” Wirt thought, backing away from the window until he reached one end of the sofa. He crawled over to the window again in curiosity and sat up, eyes just barely peeking over the window sill. There truly was no trace of the Beast ever being there at all. No signs of black oil, no shadow with nothing casting it, no tree branches. It was as if it hadn’t been there at all. He sat back down with his back against the wall. Though tired and afraid, he chose to look again: there truly was nothing there. Wirt slumped down against the wall and held his head in his hands in between his knees. Was he going mad? Was there truly nothing there and this was just the effects of sleep deprivation? Was this even real? What if he was asleep and this was all one big nightmare? The boy was brought out of his thoughts when he heard the familiar sound of a car engine pulling up in the driveway. His head flicked up at the sound of keys jingling in the doorway, the chattering of a boy and the humming of a man. Greg and Jason were home.

The door opened with Gregory happily chattering about his day and Jason carefully listening as he adjusted both their shoes in the doorway. Neither of them noticed Wirt sitting down on the floor, looking at them with eyes open wide like a deer caught in headlights, neither of them seemed to notice that the Beast was standing right outside their house and vanished before they pulled up. Wirt watched them walk to the kitchen, not really registering the words his brother was saying before their backs disappeared. He let out a gasp that he didn’t know he was holding. He could hear his mum beginning to question them for being late, Wirt had too much of a headache to listen to what his mother had to say to them. He got up and walked as quietly as he could to the stairway, pausing only to spare Gregory a glance when he passed the kitchen. He was home, and he was safe for now. Knowing this, Wirt crept up the stairs quietly to his room, not eager to have to catalogue that incident down in his journal.

\----

Somewhere deep within the forests of Oregon, the Mystery Shack was glowing with warm light, muttering coming from within it.

Dipper groaned internally, having grown tired of listening to another one of Mabel’s stories about her romantic ventures. This particular tale had been told several times, how the hell was Grunkle Stan not tired of it at this point? From his slouched position, he could still see that Grunkle Ford was still looking through all his emails on his laptop, he must not have checked them in awhile if he was still looking. Shifting his eyes, Mabel and Grunkle Stan were still having their lively conversation about...ways to enter the white house and exit without getting caught? Well, that conversation took a weird turn, Dipper mused to himself, glad that he didn’t have to listen to the story of one of her supposed exes for the time being. The 16-year-old glanced back at the six-fingered man: how was he not tired of looking through those emails? Ever since getting a laptop and signing up for a work email account for their paranormal blog, Ford has been getting case emails from all over America, ranging from the common and usually harmless magical creature needing relocation, something they really enjoyed doing, to the more dangerous jobs like exorcisms, something they often rejected and passed on to other, more experienced people.

Ford’s eyes scanned the multiple lines of text that he was presented with through all his open tabs, and he let out a thoughtful hum.“How odd”, he noted, “all these emails are coming from the same person.” Dipper perked up almost immediately once he heard those words, Mabel and Stan seemed to have not heard them. Great. He had time to look over the emails without having them yelling in his ears.

Dipper shifted his chair over so that he was sitting next to the older man. Taking a peek at the screen, the boy saw that it looked like one of their usual case emails. With eyes quickly scanning it, he confirmed that it was definitely a case that they wouldn’t normally deal with, at least not alone. Why was Ford considering taking on this case? He normally rejected them straight away if it was way above their capability.

“Hey, Grunkle Ford,” Dipper mumbled, catching the man’s attention. “Don’t we usually pass this kind of case to one of your more experienced contacts to deal with?” Ford scratched his chin in thought and his lips twisted into a small frown, as if he was thinking the same thing.

“We do, but this sounds awfully similar to when Bill took control of you when you and your sister spent your first summer here, yet at the same time, it doesn’t. Here, read it.”

Ford slid the device to Dipper, letting the younger boy scan through the email.

_Dear Mr. Stanford Pines,_

_I’m writing to you from Lakeville, New England. I think I’m being haunted by an interdimensional entity called the Beast. Last Halloween, my brother and I fell into a lake where we ended up falling into a dimension (rift? plane?) that the locals there called the Unknown. The both of us ended up vanquishing something called the Beast, or rather, we thought we did. I would’ve thought that that experience was nothing more than a coma dream, but the Beast has been making contact with me even in my waking hours. It’s getting stronger._

_I don’t know how it made its way out or why it’s following me, but I can’t sleep. I’m getting weaker by the minute and I don’t know how much longer I can hold out, it’s trying to take control of me. Help._

_-Wirt._

Dipper stuck out his tongue in thought; while it did sound awfully similar to his case, the possession and control part at least. “ _But a place called “The Unknown” and an entity called “The Beast”? Sounds kinda fake. Whoever sent this has got to be joking,_ ” he thought, pulling out his phone to see if this person sent any other emails. So far this person sent in three emails in a week, with another two coming from two different people about the same case just a couple days ago. Whoever this person was, he seems to be serious, but something just didn’t ring right with him about it.

“I don’t know, Grunkle Ford,” Dipper mumbled, not noticing how close his sister was next to him, “this seems like some kind of prank.”

“Or it could be someone calling for help.” Mabel chimed in, startling her twin and throwing him off his chair.

“Don’t do that!” he yelled from his position on the floor, having fallen after his scare. The rest of them laughed at his predicament, making him frown  from his half on the chair, half not on the chair position. Okay, he had to admit, it was kind of funny, but he wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of laughing along with them.

“Okay, but who’s the email from?” Stan asked from his seat next to Ford.

“This kid who apparently is being haunted by a spirit,” Mabel replied, taking a look at the email as well.

“And?”

“Well, that’s it, look.”

After a few more minutes of reading and humming from Stan, he huffed and shoved the laptop away from him.

“Sounds like a prank.”

“I know!” Ford exclaimed, “but look at the time stamps, whoever this person is sent emails of the same caliber in the past 3 days, look!” He slid the device in front of his brother, letting him see the other emails he got from the same person, “And another two people sent in the same case! A brother and their mom apparently.”

Dipper, after being helped up by his sister, joined Stan and they looked at each other tentatively. It wasn’t uncommon for them to receive emails about the sender being possessed, but they were almost always pranks and were only one-timers. Whoever this guy is, they were clearly not fooling around. Either this was some elaborate prank, or an actual serious case. Stan frowned. While this email did seem suspicious, it seemed like whoever sent this needs help. “Oh, what the heck,” he mumbled to himself, “if it was a prank, then sending an actual email in reply wouldn’t hurt .”

“Just send a reply to ask more about the case, it’s not like it’s our loss if it turns out to be a joke.”

Everyone stopped to look at him like he had grown a second head. Stan looked at them with equal intensity. He was being serious about this.

“Grunkle Stan, are you okay?” Dipper asked tentatively, not used to hearing his grunkle voluntarily say things like that.

“Sure I am, why wouldn’t I be?” He replied gruffly, folding his arms in defense.

“Well, you usually wouldn’t reply if it was a prank.” Stan sighed and let his shoulders sag.

“Listen, kid, while this still sounds fishy, sending a reply can’t hurt. See what they send back and we’ll decide what to do from there. Besides, if this kid needs help, then he came to the right place; we’ve dealt with something like this before so it should be okay, right Sixer?”

Mabel and Dipper looked at each other, then back at Stan. He was right, what would they lose if it was a prank anyway? Ford sighed and nodded in involuntary agreement; they had dealt with this before, but to do so alone was risky. They would need professional hunter help. He slid his laptop back to draft out a reply, stopping every now and then to let Dipper check if it made sense. With a final click, he sent out the reply. All they had to do now was wait.

\---

Wirt’s room was dark, with its only light source being his dim and flickering desk lamp. He sat with his legs brought up to his chest, eagerly searching for ways to get rid of his curse. The shadow of the Beast lingered behind him, no longer too weak to be nothing outside the realm of sleep and darkness, but only strong enough to manifest itself into a shadow that clung to Wirt in the dark. He could feel its presence, but honestly, at this point, he was too exhausted to care. He continued flipping through the open tabs on his screen, just wanting, no, _needing_ to find something to help him with his predicament. To his chagrin, he came up with nothing. Defeated but still hopeful, the brunet opened his probably bare and empty email. He scanned the numerous blog and local store adverts until his eyes landed on one in particular.

Someone had replied to his letter.

The exhausted brunet scrambled to look at the reply, feeling his sense of hope and his energy return. The Beast’s silhouette flickered and it grew weaker; it didn’t have enough control to stay for long, especially when Wirt had energy spikes like this. Wirt felt triumphant upon feeling the Beast leave, thank the Lord! He clicked on the reply, it was from the Mystery Shack! He still had hope! But before Wirt could even read the first word, his door creaked open and there was a blinding flash of light that glared into his eyes.

“Ow!” Wirt yelped, falling off his chair. He shut and covered his eyes tight. He tried to pry them open only to close them again in pain. “Greg! I thought I told you to knock?”

“I did.”

“Well then wait until I say you can come in! What if I was naked?” Wirt hissed, finally able to open his eyes to squint, everything seemed a little blurrier than normal, but he could now see the unfortunate and horrendous shade of orange that his walls were. He cringed at the sight.

“Naked?” the younger brother repeated, bringing his hand up to his chin in thought, “I think you would have yelled at me to not come in if you were.”

“That’s not the point Greg, but fair enough,” Wirt relented, sighing and choosing to swap his almost perpetual frown for a tired grin instead “what did you need, anyway?”

“Mum told me to get you down for dinner, your food’s getting cold.”

“I’m not hungry though, thought mum knew.”

“She does, but she asked me to call you down, can’t have you going to bed on an empty stomach, brother o’mine!”

Wirt sighed and glanced back at his computer. The email was right there and waiting for him to read it. He needed to do so asap: what if it held vital information that he needed to know now? He looked back at Greg’s eager face and sighed again.Greg really was excited about something, wasn’t he? Guess the email could wait then. Wirt looked at his laptop forlornly before getting up. He really hoped that he could sleep without something trying to kill him tonight.

“Come on then, best not we keep mum waiting,” he said picking Greg up and carrying him down the corridor.

“Woah! You can still carry me?”

“Of course, I am obviously still the stronger one,” Wirt huffed with a smirk, the both of them laughing soon afterward. Greg squealed and moved around in Wirt’s arms, making the elder brother struggle a bit. The lights flickered above them and for a moment, they saw the shadow of the Beast flicker by the stairway. Wirt and Gregory looked at each other for a second. They both knew that Wirt was getting weaker and the Beast was getting stronger by the minute; if he gets too weak, neither of them wanted to know what the Beast would do to Wirt or their family. Wirt bit the inside of his cheek and spared his younger brother a glance as they continued walking down the stairs, both of them haunted by the image. Should he tell him what happened? “ No, Greg was too young, he doesn’t need to know what I saw ,” Wirt thought, “ it was probably just a hallucination anyway, right?” But if he was hallucinating, that would mean that he had to sleep very, very soon.

“Woah there Wirt, be careful, you almost bumped into a wall.”

The troubled boy was brought out of his thoughts, only to be greeted with the sight of the cream coloured walls in front of the stairs. Greg was no longer in his arms, but in someone else’s instead. When did that happen? He turned his head to look at where the voice came from and was greeted with the warm face of Greg’s father and Greg being carried in one of his arms.

 

“Oh, hey Jason, thanks for the warning.”

“Anytime kid, I was just about to call the both of you down,” he adjusted the younger brother in his arms as he said that, obviously not used to grabbing children in mid-air like that. ”Your mother was pretty close to going up there herself.”

“Oh thanks,” Wirt replied, internally cringing at his mess of a room. His mother would blow the roof if she saw it. “What’s for dinner?”

Jason didn’t get a chance to answer the question before Greg demanded to be put down, yelling something about there being potatoes and unfortunately, gravy and not molasses. It was probably just some mash and veggies. On second thought, Wirt was then reminded of how un-hungry he was.

“I just remembered that I’m not hungry.”

“You may not be hungry right now but you will be later, so come and eat your dinner!” His mum yelled from the kitchen. How did she even hear him?

“I will, I just need to grab something from my room, hold up!” he replied.

Jason shrugged and went into the kitchen, giving his step-son a reassuring shoulder squeeze, Wirt welcomed it, he felt like that was going to be the last few signs of warmth for awhile and he didn’t know why.

Quickly, the boy ran up the stairs, occasionally tripping on the steps. He walked past the picture frames on the walls, feeling as if someone was watching him. He felt his stomach start to growl. He was hungry, shit, he needed to get his phone and go back down to eat. He cannot afford to be this weak right now.

Neon ringed eyes stared at him from a corner, unseen and too weak to manifest physically, but it didn’t need to be physical to creep Wirt out to no end. He could feel it’s stare and he could feel it getting stronger, while he was getting weaker. This wasn’t good.

It felt like years when it really just took a minute to reach his old bedroom door. He had it closed at all times, and he was glad that it needed an opening to get into his room, closing the door after coming in felt like he was closing the Beast out. He flicked the lights on, smiling in joy when he felt the Beast glare at him from the addition of his bright lights. The door didn’t manage to lock the spirit out, but the more Wirt could spite him, the better. He crossed over his floor and pulled out his chair at his desk. His laptop was still open, the screen was still on and he didn’t have any other emails. He could just write a short draft, grab his phone and then eat. He didn’t have anything else to do, this was the best opportunity, right? His stomach growled in protest, he was hungry. But a short draft wouldn’t hurt, right?

He pulled his laptop to close to him, dimming the screen so that it wouldn’t hurt his eyes and he began to type, not noticing how the air grew colder until his breath was visible or how time seemed to move more slowly or how dark some of the shadows in his room now were. The silhouette of the Beast grew as Wirt got hungrier, but it wasn’t until his eyes drifted on the screen that he saw the shadow looming behind him. His breathing hitched and Wirt turned around. How long had it been there? Wirt’s eyes narrowed and he lowered his body defensively. He was not going to let it win here, he couldn’t let that happen.

“What do you want, Beast?” He spat, voice filled with venom.

“Be specific child, I want many things,” it started, it’s voice filled with emptiness and holding no warmth.”For example, I want to be able to be able to hold on to something or maybe I want to feel the warmth of my lantern. Or maybe, I want freedom.”

Wirt didn’t reply, his eyes darting to the door and back to the Beast. He didn’t have to worry about his parents or Greg seeing the Beast looming over him like this, good. They won’t be in danger. His hand reached behind him to shut his computer and sliding it away, narrowed brown eyes not moving away from the spirit’s shadow.

“Well we can’t have everything we want, Beast,” Wirt spat, his lips curving into a smirk as he taunted it. The room dropped in temperature, it was like winter had arrived in the poet’s bedroom. “If we could, then you would be dead and none of this would be happening, but alas that is not the case isn’t it? So do me a favour and fuck off, you sorry excuse for a tree.”

“Careful child, you do not understand what you think you can handle.” Darkness flooded Wirt’s vision and he felt his throat start to constrict as the Beast said: “Soon I will be stronger and I will get what I want, whether you and your brother want me to or not.” Wirt felt his vision come back and his airway relax. “That silly email won’t help you. Give up, you can’t win.”

“Again, I told you to fuck off,” Wirt replied as if he wasn’t being strangled just moments ago. He turned his back and chose to get up instead of staying in the suffocating room, he was too weak if the Beast could do that. He ran to the door and ripped it open, letting the warm hallway light leak into the darkened room. It could turn his lights off, this was not good, Wirt needed to eat now.

The door flew open wildly. Wirt didn’t expect Greg to be right outside his door, ready to knock and make him come down for dinner again. Greg was about to ask, but then he saw the hulking and looming shadow of the Beast in the room. The younger boy froze in fear, ready to either scream or run at any second. Wirt moved in front of Greg to shield him from the Beast’s view, ready to lunge at it if it even dared to come close to the light. The spirit narrowed its eyes and it slowly vanished, leaving its antlers and eyes to linger before those too evaporated into the air.

Wirt fell down to his knees. He could’ve died back then, what on Earth he thinking? Taunting the Beast like that, was he trying to get himself killed? He drew his knees up to his chest and hung his head there in exhaustion, Greg relaxed and he turned his head to look at his visibly exhausted older brother. He looked more haggard than usual, Greg would have loved to let Wirt sleep it off, but he needed to eat to get stronger if he was going to survive the night.

“Wirt, Wirt come on. You gotta eat, brother o’ mine. Mom, Dad and Jason Funderburker are waiting for us in the kitchen,” Greg mumbled, pulling on Wirt’s hoodie. Wirt nodded and attempted to get up, only to fall down. He got up again with Greg’s help and they eventually managed to walk down the stairs.

It took them awhile, no one questioned why the both of them took their time, and for that they were thankful. The older boy could only pick at his food and take small bites off his fork, his phone laid forgotten in his pocket. Greg ate faster than usual and requested seconds, and he ate that like it was his last meal on earth.

Annie and Jason gave each other a look before Annie took in a deep breath to calm herself. Both her sons were here, so it was the best time to tell them.

“Boys, Jason and I have something very important to tell you,” she said, her face set into a grin, barely gaining the boy’s attention. “We’re going to be taking a trip to Oregon.”

At the mention of the state, Wirt’s head snapped up comically. Oregon? The Mystery Shack was in Gravity Falls, Oregon, he could go to the Mystery Shack in person and finally, finally get rid of the Beast once and for all. Finally, things were looking up, Wirt thought, his face set in a tired grin. Greg was beaming, they could finally get help! But wasn’t it across the continent?

“Wait, but isn’t Oregon on the other side of the country?”

“It is, which is why we’re going to stay there for a month,” Jason replied in between mouthfuls of veggies and potatoes.

“But who’s going to take care of Jason Funderburker?” Greg asked, unwilling to leave his amphibian companion behind. “Can’t we bring him along?”

“Unfortunately Greg, we can’t bring him, customs wouldn’t allow us to,” Wirt explained gently. “But we can ask Mrs. Daniels to take care of him.”

“We can ask Old Lady Daniels?”

“Yes, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.”

“But are you sure we can’t bring him along, good brother o’mine?”

“Quite sure, but we can go frog hunting while we’re in Oregon, I did promise to take you on one last Halloween.”

Greg pouted, but then his grin returned and he continued to eat his dinner with vigour, Wirt smiled and continued to pick at his own meal after having eaten half of it. Should he ask his parents if they could go stop by Gravity Falls for a bit, it should be okay, right? Wirt gasped, he forgot about the email he got. He didn’t get to read it yet!

“Excuse me but I need to go to bed,” Wirt blurted, grabbing his dishes to put in the sink, “thanks for dinner, mum. Night Greg, night Jason.” He said, crossing the kitchen to give Greg and his mum a kiss on the forehead and cheek goodnight respectively.

“Wait don’t you want dessert?”

“Nope, no thank you! I’m full, good night!”

“Well, ok then, good night Wirt!”

Wirt ran up the stairs and to his room, careful to avoid the darker corners lest the Beast strikes again. He grabbed his laptop and flopped onto his bed, locking the door for some privacy. If this works out, this would be his only chance to solve his problem.“ Let’s hope it works.

“Into the Unknown we go,” Wirt muttered, letting the dim glow of the computer screen take his attention.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the people who actually left kudos and a comment??!!!!! I did not expect that and am very, very thankful for that ahhh. If there are any mistakes or questions you would like to ask, feel free to ask 'em! I would also like to thank my cousin and @OakwoodOuroboros for helping me to beta read and edit because Lord knows how this would turn out if they didn't lmao. I do apologise if Wirt is rather OOC in this, it has been awhile since I have written anything at all lmao
> 
> Edit: Finally edited the entire thing ahhhhhhhh, and thank you for taking your time to read this!


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